Wipe Out! CD Repair Kit – Review

Wipe Out! CD Repair Kit
Company: Esprit Development
Estimated Price: $14.99
http://www.cdrepair.com

Like most people, I have a lot of CDs and CD-ROMs. I also plan on buying a DVD (with DIVX!) player within the next year or so. Long before I was into computers, I was an audiophile. My stereo equipment is still worth more than my computer systems which is one of the reasons I have so many CDs. No sense in owning a stereo if you don’t have CDs to play on them! I also still use my reel to reel, but that’s another story.

As happens from time to time my CDs become scratched, be it from taking them in the truck to jam on the road or simply dropping one, it just happens. Same thing with my CD-ROMs. And once a CD get a really good scratch, it is about totally useless. Which is what happened to both my Foo Fighters CD as well as my WarCraft II CD-ROM.

I have tried cleaning both of them. I even bought a “Scratch Removal” kit from one of the stores in the mall. I really liked the Foo Fighters CD, and while the scratch only effected one song, it just happened to be the one song I liked the most on the CD. As for WarCraft II, I had all but given up hope. When I would insert the CD-ROM, it would not even show up on the desktop. It was very depressing. I still enjoy WarCraft II, and once I knew the CD-ROM was scratched and unplayable, I only wanted to play it even more! Never fails…

I was browsing the Internet one day when I ran across Esprit Development’s website. I couldn’t help wondering if their product, Wipe Out!, really worked. I had a need for a product that would and at only $14.99, it would be a steal if it did work. So after contacting Marc Guest (CEO of Esprit) and telling him who I was, he agreed to send me a trial sample of the product to test out for review. Marc was very positive about the Wipe Out!, assuring me it would work as promised. He also said something that stuck in my head. He told me that Wipe Out! would not make the CD look as pretty and shiny as it was when it was new. He said it was because they had a choice to make it do that, or make it actually work. They decided to make it work.

A few days latter, I received the package in the mail, and set out to test Wipe Out!.The directions are quite simple: Shake Wipe Out! for 20 seconds. Apply one drop to scratched area. Wipe with nonabrasive cloth (which is included) until scratch is removed. Clean disk with water. Play disc. Which I did.

The Foo Fighters CD was the first test subject. I immediately noticed that Wipe Out! does not make the CD look shiny and new, just as Mark had told me. But as long as it worked, I didn’t care. After following the directions, I tested the repaired CD in my Mac, my home stereo system, and the Clarion CD player in my truck. Amazingly, it worked like a brand new CD! No skipping, no missed tracks, no long delay accessing any track, nothing. If I didn’t know better, I would have never guessed the CD was ever in a condition that it would not play. I was ecstatic!

I put Wipe Out! to work on the WarCraft II CD-ROM next. I first tested it to make sure that it was indeed still damaged and that my Mac would still not recognize it. Still dead as far as the Mac was concerned. Once again I followed Wipe Out!’s directions, and once again it worked. After months of not playing WarCraft II, I was again slaying Orcs to my hearts content.

Esprit Development Corporation guarantees that the product works and it does work as advertised. And while this review sort of sounds like a late night infomercial, I can only say I am really amazed with Wipe Out!. One bottle (1.5 oz.) is enough Wipe Out! to repair at least fifty CDs. (By the way, if you have 50 scratched CDs, someone needs to show you how to take better care of your things!)

While you may not have a scratched CD, CD-ROM, or DVD disc now, you probably will sometime in the future. I think it’s a good idea to be prepared, and if you’ve invested as much time and money as I have in music CDs, being prepared is only smart. I plan on ordering more Wipe Out! when this bottle runs out, though that may take a long time. But I’m much less worried about damaged CDs now than I was before.

Great product! Great price as compared to replacing even one CD! I highly recommend it!

MacMice Rating: 4

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Tim Robertson
publisher@mymac.com

Websites mentioned:
http://www.cdrepair.com